5 Responses to Chart of the Day – Complete Streets

Having the policy is one thing, having the will to implement it is another. Hopkins has it, but the design of 2015’s reconstruction of Mainstreet has nearly nothing that hints at complete streets. Of all the streets where it should happen, Mainstreet Hopkins calls for it. Losing an opportunity there for another 20 years.

I’m not so sure. Mainstreet Hopkins has very little traffic, and doesn’t really fit a complete streets approach. Rather than creating segregated space for uses, it could almost be a wider version of the Urban Street Design Guide’s Commercial Shared Street… more of a commercial woonerf, where it’s absolutely clear cars may be welcome but they don’t have priority.

A commercial shared street would be the best outcome. I’ve suggested exactly much in my comments to the city at the recent open house. There will be two more in coming weeks and months, I don’t think the city is willing to be that progressive in altering what they know. The city is receiving federal money to make this happen, but it appears all they are doing is redoing ADA ramps, mill and overlay, replacing pavers, installing LED street lights, and putting in some bike posts.